Writer/director/producer Alex Gibney is one of the most talented documentarians of our time, with great films under his belt like Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room, Taxi to the Dark Side, We Steal Secrets: The Story Of Wikileaks, The Armstrong Lie and recently, Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Belief, for which he is still getting flack from the doc’s disgruntled subjects. So when Gibney takes on a mercurial icon like Steve Jobs, you know the film will be imminently watchable and thought provoking.

Gibney explores the man, the myth, the legend, so to speak, covering brief snippets of his private life (Jobs’ widow chose not to be involved with the film) and great swaths of his public life. There seems to be little or no agenda here, as Gibney devotes equal emphasis to Jobs’ cult-like following and life/culture changing innovations, as well as his questionable relationships with the law, taxes, laborers and colleagues. If you’ve read his official biography, Steve Jobs, by Walter Isaacson, you’ll find few revelations in the film, but if you haven’t, you’ll get some fabulous background on the guy who is probably responsible for your computer, mobile phone, tablet or music listening device.

This documentary will cause some people to rethink their Mac devotion in general, and in particular the use of their iPhones. Gibney says that making the doc certainly gave him pause, but didn’t raise enough red flags to swear off his iPhone completely. As for me, a dedicated Mac user since the ’80’s and an iPhone enthusiast since the day they were born, I was not shocked into changing my well-ingrained i-Ways. I believe Jobs has made great contributions toward helping our lives become fuller, more efficient, and just plain fun. Show me the corporate icon who hasn’t made mistakes, whose hands are completely clean. As with everyone and everything else in the world today, Steve Jobs is complicated, and Gibney does an excellent job of portraying that.

Rated R

2 Hours

Get times and tickets at Fandango.com, or see it at home on iTunes and On Demand

STEVE JOBS — THE MAN IN THE MACHINE Review